£8m cost of unmanaged third party risks

Unmanaged third party risks are costing businesses upwards of £8 million, According to a survey by MetricStream, which produces governance, risk and compliance apps.

It found that 21 per cent of respondents reported that their organisations faced significant risk due to third parties in the last 18 months; of those who shared financial impact data on the losses, 25 per cent said that the loss was greater than £8 million (generated through cost of downtime, regulatory fines and reputational damage).

Some 73 per cent of businesses did not track fourth parties, consequently they had no visibility past their immediate suppliers. And 44 per cent of respondents said that their organisations did not have a dedicated third party risk management function or a centralised information repository.

French Caldwell of MetricStream said: “It’s clear that many enterprises are yet to grasp fully how vital vendor risk management is.”